February 1983

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Features

The Future of American Agriculture

In the coming decades the price of farm products in the U.S. will be influenced not only by constraints on the supply of essential inputs such as land, water and energy but also by the demand for exports

By Sandra S. Batie and Robert G. Healy

The Lattice Theory of Quark Confinement

The force between quarks in a particle such as the proton has been simulated by imposing a discrete lattice on the structure of space and time. The results suggest why a free quark cannot be isolated

By Claudio Rebbi

Synthetic Vaccines

A short chain of amino acids assembled in the laboratory to mimic a site on the surface of a viral protein can give rise to antibodies of predetermined specificity that confer immunity against the virus

By Richard A. Lerner

The Optical Computer

A computer based on beams of light rather than electric currents might be capable of a trillion operations per second. The crucial component, an optical analogue of the transistor, has been built

By Eitan Abraham, Colin T. Seaton and S. Desmond Smith

Hidden Visual Processes

Vision is usually regarded as being a single sense. Experiments show, however, that the visual system includes subsystems whose operation is normally hidden from the awareness of the perceiver

By Jeremy M. Wolfe

The Active Solar Corona

Once visible only during eclipses, the pearly surround of the sun is under constant surveillance. The observations show dynamic activity reflecting the interaction of matter and magnetic fields

By Richard Wolfson

Dart-Poison Frogs

In Colombia, Indian hunters poison blowgun darts with highly toxic alkaloids secreted by small frogs. Both the alkaloids and the evolutionary biology of the frogs raise interesting questions

By Charles W. Myers and John W. Daly

Fan Vaulting

In the 14th century English masons converted the pointed Gothic arch into an architectural shell of flowing curvature. Their aims were primarily aesthetic, but the vaults are soundly engineered

By Walter C. Leedy Jr.

Departments

50 and 100 Years Ago: February 1983

Science and the Citizen, February 1983

Letters

Letters, February 1983

Recommended

Books, February 1983

Amateur Scientist

The Amateur Scientist, February 1983

Departments

The Authors, February 1983

Metamagical Themas, February 1983

Bibliography, February 1983

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